While I’m all for RSS feeds and not needing a web browser to check my mail, disabling my firewall doesn’t exactly make me feel all warm inside. On a good note, the ad-supported client does allow users to blog about what they’re reading with one click, allows a good amount of user-control and supports voice and video calling. That’s pretty cool. I’m still not convinced it’s worth the download. Unless you’re one of the few still checking your mail in Outlook. Then it’s a definite upgrade.

But maybe this will inspire Google to create a desktop version of Gmail. I’d get behind that.

Also questionable: Microsoft’s CelebFavorites.com announcement. Tell me this doesn’t sound like a trashy gossip site. But, it’s not, well, not technically anyway. It’s a site that uses Windows Live Local mapping technology to plot noted hotspots of eight famed celebrities, including Anna Kournikova and Alex Rodriquez (am I supposed to know who that is?). SEW reports users can click on a celebrity’s name and the ‘travel the maps’ to find out more about them.

Question: Why would I want to?

Why is Microsoft even publicizing this? Is this how it’s planning to take down Google? Appeal to users’ incessant need for gossip? Oh, this is going to be successful. The site will be live through the end of June, so hurry on over because it… closes? The celebrities change? I have no idea.

I hope these two releases aren’t part of Microsoft’s master takeover plan, because I’m afraid they’re going to fall short. And by short, I mean not even register on Google’s (or users) radar. Andy Beal blogged today that there is only one surefire way to ‘topple’ Google: tarnish the Google name. If that’s the case, Microsoft has a long, long way to go.

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